Way back in the late 1970s when I was living in Los Angeles, I
was contacted to arrange a meeting with Richard Pinhas, a French
musicians visting California with his wife Agnetta. I was told that
he had named his group "Heldon" after the mythical land in my novel
THE IRON DREAM.
Since THE IRON DREAM purports have been written by Adolf Hitler
in an alternate universe in which he became a science fiction writer
instead of Fuerher and Heldon was this demented Hitler's wish-
fullfillment fantasy of the Third Reich, I was somewhat nervous.
But Richard turned out to be anything but a Nazi, and we became
good friends. And years later, I "sang" a cut on his album EAST-WEST
cyborged to a vocoder and computer. Which became the inspiration for
my novel LITTLE HEROES.
The group Heldon disappeared, but Richard went on.
More recently, I did likewise on CYBORG SALLY, another of
Richard's albums, the title of this one inspired by a virtual rock
star in LITTLE HEROES, and using the words to one of the songs in the
book. And then acted in the video.
Now Richard is reviving Heldon. And I'm writing songs with him
for the album, one of which has already been recorded. And may do a
little robot vocalization too.
David Korn, aka David Danger (not in the photo) is the lead singer.
Antoine Paganotii, also not pictured here, is the bassist.
On the right is bassist Olivier Mancion, to his left, is
Richard Pinhas. To Richard's left is me, and to the left of
me is Maurice Dantec.
This is going to be a strange album by a rather strange group.
Richard has a doctorate in philosophy. I'm a 56 year-old American
novelist. Maurice, who's also writing songs and performing, is a
French novelist. David, at least is a professional singer.
If this sounds to intellectual to be rock and roll, well so far,
the early stuff sounds commercial enough to me. Danceable, even.
Watch this space for more. And for links.
ONLY CHAOS IS REAL has long since been completed, and in the absense of a major deal, we have gone with a cooperative small label, 25PM, and the album is now available. Only the special limited edition for the next month or so, which includes an extra CD of rehearsal cuts, and a booklet with text by me, Richard Pinhas, and Maurice Dantec. A slight surcharge for this. The regular CD will be out in a month or so. Either way, there's a link to the site where you can order below.
Below links to the Heldon website and Richard's Gilles Deleuze website